Today was the first day of our Spring Break. I had originally scheduled it for the week before Easter, but we will spend three days this week with out-of-town guests, so I thought it would probably just work out better if I moved it up.
The morning was slow going. Brian and I joke back and forth about how it's okay to have to get up so early with these boys because we get coffee. Coffee is yummy. It's like getting a warm, vanilla treat every morning. It makes me happy. I do miss our carafe, though. I'm trying to convince Brian he does too. But I don't think it's working. I drink one cup of coffee, so it matters not to me. Either way my coffee is hot and fresh. He drinks eighteen cups of coffee. So I suppose his thinking is that by his tenth cup, he is no longer drinking hot, fresh coffee. And since I'm a nice person, I guess I'll continue drinking my coffee from a Keurig. That word is even ugly. Carafe is so much prettier.
Since we were not spending our morning with a lingering school day above our heads, I thought I'd make breakfast. Since Miriam was born, we've gone back to our cereal eating days. It's much easier and faster ... but I think we all miss EATING a hot breakfast. Maybe if I could just remember to prepare things the night before ... and if we could get a second dishwasher ... ...
Today was also Miriam's Two Month Birthday. It's been a very fast two months, and I'm very thankful for things like digital cameras and Facebook statuses. Keeping memories is important to me. I cannot believe how much she has already grown. We've gone through a few "sizes" in clothes, and tonight she's wearing a 6 Months sleeper to bed. A pink one with bunny slippers and a bunny tail (which everyone ooohed and aaahed over during bedtime prayers). She's lost a lot of her beautiful, dark hair. But not all of it. She's keeping her dark complexion. She still has dark hair on her ears and hiney. Her fingernails grow like crazy. And she has more rolls on her legs than you can count with your fingers.
Meanwhile, in the crib next to Sissy is a HUGE toddler boy. He looks bigger every day too. And I'm finding him with his feet hanging out of bed all too often. Perhaps. Maybe. It might just be time to move him to a big boy bed with his big boy brothers. Fozzy and Kermit can go with him. ... ... it may also be time for a first haircut.
I spent most of my afternoon creating a Circle Time Corner. Last week
I posted what our Circle Time looks like right now. I have been "teaching" it out of a notebook all this time, and it was getting increasingly hard to teach - nurse - read - sing - etc with a notebook on my lap. So, I googled around and found I could spend about thirty-five dollars and buy some really generic Circle Time board, I could print off a lot of not-quite-what-we-do Circle Time charts, or I could create our very own Circle Time Corner ... my breakfast area now looks like a kindergarten classroom. But, as my homeschool-supporting mom pointed out, we do indeed "do kindergarten" in the breakfast area. As I was putting it all together, Judah and Zach were watching. Judah kept singing A-a-Apple, and Zach kept mimicking the phonics lessons I do with Wesley and Benjamin. He will bring a book to me and just start rambling off random letter sounds ... which is probably exactly what it sounds like to him as we do a lesson (along with the head-banging-on-table thuds). When Connor came in from outside, he just stood and stared at it. I asked what was wrong (I was thinking it was a little much once I finished, and stood back and looked at it), but he said, "I wish I'd had a cool wall like that when I was in preschool." Let's hope the preschoolers think their "wall" is cool too!
Next year, I hope to spend the first day of Spring Break on the beach. But I'm not really into hoping years away. I'll just stay at home with my kids again tomorrow. Take a lot of pictures. Cook a lot of food. Teach the alphabet. And write it all down once they go to sleep.
Shows: Peter Rabbit, Bubble Guppies, Team UmiZoomi
Songs: Oh, Mr. Sun, Teen Beach Movie (album), Sing Over Me (naptime album), Jack Johnson and Friends Sing-A-Longs & Lullabies for the Film Curious George, BlackLight by Tedashii, Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing, It Is Well With My Soul
Stories: Hush Little Baby, My Book House In The Nursery, James Herriot's Treasury for Children (quiet time story album), Gospel of Mark, A Nest for Celeste: A Story About Art, Inspiration, and the Meaning of Home, Favorite Poems Old and New (including Wynken, Blynken, and Nod), The Land I Lost: Adventures of a Boy in Vietnam, The Big Red Barn, Farmer Boy - Hank The Cowdog (bedtime story albums)
